Cyclist dies after accident with concrete mixer

The cyclist who was critically injured in an accident with a concrete mixer in Berlin is dead. The police and public prosecutor announced this on Friday. The 44-year-old died in hospital on Thursday evening. According to the police, the woman had previously been declared brain dead.

The accident caused a nationwide stir and discussion. According to the fire brigade, a special vehicle that was supposed to help free the injured person under the truck was stuck in a traffic jam on the city highway. This is said to have been triggered by an action by the climate protest group "Last Generation".

The climate activists came under pressure to justify themselves after the brain death of a cyclist in Berlin. Representatives of various parties called for decisive action.

The cyclist was hit and run over by a truck in Berlin on Monday. The accident caused a nationwide stir and discussion. According to the fire brigade, a special vehicle that was supposed to help free the injured person under the truck was stuck in a traffic jam on the city highway. This is said to have been triggered by an action by the climate protest group "Last Generation". Activists from the group had recently repeatedly blocked streets in the capital. Members of the "Last Generation" also caused a stir in museums, where they pasted or daubed themselves on paintings.

"Art is vandalized, roads blocked and infrastructure damaged - in Berlin rescue vehicles did not arrive in time for a life-threatening injury," said Mast. Democracy should not allow itself to be blackmailed. "I personally think that the judiciary must be tough on repeat offenders."

In the "Augsburger Allgemeine" (Friday), the Greens politician Anton Hofreiter called for a quick investigation into the accident in Berlin. He emphasized: "Protests, even against the massive threats of the climate crisis, must not endanger the lives of other people." The parliamentary director of the FDP in the Bundestag, Stephan Thomae, told the newspaper that the judicial authorities must now examine the extent to which the adhesive blockade is a contributing factor for the brain death of the cyclist. "If that is the case, those responsible must be prosecuted."

CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja told the news portal "t-online" that it was "disturbing" how the supporters of the "last generation" were "becoming more and more militant". AfD faction and party leader Alice Weidel told the portal: "Even if you have to be careful with personal blame, it's finally time for the "Green Street Fighters" to question themselves and their political arm in the Bundestag and the government speaks a word of power. It cannot and must not go on like this.”

The "Last Generation" was dismayed after the news of the cyclist's brain death. The activists have been increasingly hostile to social networks since the incident and made directly responsible for the woman's brain death.

“We hear a lot of information, including untruths, spread by the big media. We should stick to safe facts, as we did in the climate catastrophe," activist Henning Jeschke told dpa on Thursday. When asked whether the woman's brain death would change anything about the protest actions, he said: "As long as our highest political organs break our common constitution with an announcement because they are destroying our livelihoods, we will resist peacefully."

The climate activist Luisa Neubauer from "Fridays for Future" called the woman's brain death "terrible news". In an interview with the ZDF "heute journal update" (Friday), she emphasized that civil disobedience should not endanger people. "It is also a situation that makes us as a climate movement think about reviewing our own security concepts," said Neubauer.